Coming Home
by electricaaaaaaa
Summary: This novel will only make total sense if you have read the Zodiac Legacy: Convergence by Stan Lee, Stuart Moore, and Andie Tong. Steven Lee comes home after being missing for five months due to his newly developed powers.
1. Chapter 1

Harani combed her hand through her jet-black hair, holding a picture of herself, her friend Steven Lee, and Ryan standing in front of a museum in Hong Kong. Steven had never wanted to go on the trip, but just for the picture, he actually smiled like he was having fun. They were his best friends. . .or more like his only friends.

"Where did you go, Steven?" She said, staring at the picture as if it would reveal answers. It was 5 months after Steven went missing in Hong Kong. A few hours after he went missing, Steven's mom had gotten a phone call from him saying he wouldn't be back for a while. His parent's hadn't thought much of it at the time, as

usual. But when he didn't come home, his parents started an international manhunt looking for him. Some people had reported seeing him in places all around the globe. Elton, Indiana, Paris, France...But when the police finally got there, Steven was nowhere to found. It was like he had vanished into thin air.

When the investigation into Steven's disappearance had no results, they closed the case. After that, everybody accepted that he was probably lost in the wild or dead or something. But she could never accept the fact that he had just disappeared and wouldn't be coming back. The last time she saw him was after the basement of the museum exploded and she saw him climb out of a hole in the ground as they evacuated the building. Harani would never forget the look of terror plastered on Steven's face. He mouthed the words good-bye before turning and running into the trees with a guy and their supposed "tour guide". Turns out the museum didn't have an employee named "Jumanne".

Harani's phone vibrated and her ringtone belted out from the device. She picked up the phone and looked at the caller id, Ryan. She ended the call. Harani wasn't in the mood to talk. The phone rang again and she ended the call again. She didn't even have to look at the caller id to know it was Ryan. Finally, the phone rang again impatiently. Annoyed, Harani answered the call and put the phone up to her ear. "What?" She said, irritated. She could hear panting on the other side of the line. Long, deep breaths like Ryan was catching his breath. "He's...home." He took another deep breath, "Steven's home".


	2. Chapter 2

_Weird_ , Steven thought. He felt uncomfortable in his own bedroom. He felt like this room belonged to a different person. A different Steven who was obsessed with the Steel Mongoose and watched superhero movies every night, the Steven who wished he had superpowers, not the Steven who had seen what real battles looked like, had fought in them. The Steven who had amazing powers and strength. This room seemed like a different life, a life Steven didn't belong to anymore. It had really only been five months. But in those five months, he'd changed. Steven clenched his fists and let the tiger inside him loose. His fists flared up like fire into orange energy, a tiger formed in the air and ran around the room, leaving a faint trail of energy in its wake. Steven loved his new abilities, but sometimes he wondered what would've happened if he hadn't gone to Hong Kong. If he hadn't followed Jasmine into the zodiac chamber. If he hadn't run away with Jasmine and Carlos after the explosion of the chamber.

Willing all of his energy into the tiger, the energy encircling his fists grew bigger. He smiled. Steven heard the doorknob turn and hid his hands behind his back, willing the tiger energy to subside. Harani and Ryan walked into the room as the door opened. "Oh god, it is you" Harani said, looking like she was about to cry. Ryan kept pinching his arm testing to see if this was just a dream. He winced every time. Harani hugged Steven like he'd been gone forever. She was crying as she hugged him before her face just expressed sheer anger. She pulled herself out of the hug and hit Steven three times on his arm, "Don't you ( _hit)_ ever do that ( _hit)_ to me again, you ( _hit)_ idiot!" Steven just smiled.

"Please tell me I'm not dreaming", Ryan said touching Steven's shoulder."Not dreaming"."Hey, guys", Steven said, rubbing his arm in the place where Harani hit it. "Hey, guys?, HEY, GUYS?! You disappear without a trace for five months and you say HEY, GUYS!? I'm gonna kill you, Lee!" Harani lunged at Steven before Ryan held her back. Steven could feel the tiger surging through his system ready to be let out, but he pushed it back down. "Hey, Harani. The man just got back, don't kill him right now. Also, I think killing someone on the terms of improper wording is illegal." Ryan persuaded, holding Harani back until she calmed down. Harani hadn't really gotten a good look at Steven yet, he was wearing the same jacket that he was wearing on the day he went missing, he had on a white t-shirt underneath and cargo usual outfit ,but there was something off about him, something different.


	3. Chapter 3

A week later, the school told Steven's parents that he had to go back to school. Since Steven's grandfather had died and the whole missing for five months thing, His parent's promised Steven they would "be around more" and that they would take him to this new extreme corn maze and the frozen yogurt after school. So on his first day back, as he walked through the halls people whispered and pointed. There were even rumors that Steven had gotten into a fight, he didn't fight, he just growled and walked away. And that was what scared Harani the most.

Man, Steven is actually here. Ryan tapped his pencil on the desk and

balanced his chair on two legs, leaning on the desk behind him. Mr. Singh was at the front of the room talking about pi. " pi is 3.14159265359, it is used to represent the ratio of a circle's circumference... Any questions?" All 33 hands went up. "And please don't ask if whether pi comes in apple and pumpkin." All 33 hands went down, except one. " Mr. Singh, if pi represents the ratio of circle's circumference, does that mean it can be used to find the circumference of any sphere? Even an irregularly-shaped one?" Ryan saw Harani roll her eyes from the corner of his eye. He gave her a look, _what?_ Harani looked at him and whispered, "She just has to be the best, doesn't she?" Ryan gave a small chuckle and glanced at Robyn, who had a devious smile on her face and held her head too high. _Popular kids_. Robyn Freedman, possibly the most annoying girl in the 10th grade. She pulled a pencil from behind her ear and started writing in the journal in front of her. Probably sketching something, Ryan thought.

"Well, that is an exceptional question, Robyn. Yes, I believe so..." Mr. Singh answered as he wrote on the writeboard. Oh, great to make things worse, she got him off on another rant. Ryan could hear the grunts and ughs bouncing around the classroom like a wave. Ryan thought Mr. Singh was great, but whenever he started talking he usually ended up talking about something completely different. One time, He was discussing the pythagorean theorem and he ended up talking about his trip to hawaii three years ago. As Harani says, Mr. Singh goes off tangent a lot. Speaking of Harani, two desks down from Ryan, she was staring at the door impatiently. She was tapping her foot like crazy, chewing the end of her pencil and thrumming her fingers on the desk. She usually only does that when she's nervous or excited or both. Ryan ripped a piece of paper out of his notebook and wrote a note on it,

 _What's up?_

He folded the note twice and passed it down the aisle. Harani opened the note and with the pencil she'd been chewing wrote furiously on it. She passed it down the aisle to Ryan. He opened the paper read Harani's reply. Under his writing, she'd written

 _What's up?_

 _Steven._

Ryan went on writing replies to Harani and Harani went on writing replies Ryan. Passing the note back and forth across the aisle.

 _What's up?_

 _Steven._

 _What?_

 _He's been acting weird ever since he got back and I heard that he got into a fight today after 1st period._

 _Seriously? I save the dude from getting mauled by you and then a week later he gets himself into a fight?_

 _This is SERIOUS, Ryan. But the weird thing is, he didn't actually do anything. He just growled and walked away. As Least that's what I heard._

 _Growled? Um, Harani are you talking about OUR Steven or an escaped bear? Because Steven does NOT growl._

 _Well, I wasn't there, but Amy from 2nd period showed me a video someone took of the fight. I could literally hear the growl coming through the phone. It sounded like something not human, something NOT steven._

 _Okay...So what do we do?_

 _His parents are taking him to the Corn maze at the edge of town tonight, I think we should go along._

 _Okay, Ask Steven after school?_

 _Yeah_

 _All Right, Operation See What's Wrong with Steven is a GO._

 _Seriously, you moron?_

 _I'm just going to pretend I didn't see that._

Ryan heard the door to the classroom open, he held his breath. The entire room apparently did too. It was super loud in there, but as soon as Steven walked through the door it fell silent. Everyone's eyes followed Steven as he walked to the desk next to Ryan. " Hi, Mr. Singh" Steven said softly, low enough that if you weren't paying attention you wouldn't hear, but loud enough that Mr. Singh turned around and let the dry erase marker in his hand clatter to the floor. "Hi , Steven " Mr. Singh said replied in a daze. Truth was, Ryan felt sorry for the old man. After Steven disappeared, Mr. Singh went into a frenzy of worry. He drove around the Hong Kong and asked anyone that listened if they'd seen Steven. It was so funny that Ryan had the idea of secretly filming Mr. Singh and putting it online.

But then in his head Ryan slapped himself in the face for thinking that. Mr. Singh didn't go to jail or anything, but he almost lost his job as chaperone of any future field trips until a groups of guys started a petition to keep Mr. Singh as chaperone, mostly because he was better than the other math teacher, Mrs. Dendropolis who was crazy strict. "Um, yes. As I was saying... What was I saying?" Mr. Singh said, lost in his train of thought. "You were talkin' about pi. Mr. Singh?" Ryan replied. "Ah, yes. So pi can come in many flavors, like apple, pumpkin, key lime pie..." Oh , this is just pure comedic gold! Ryan was about to laugh when Harani gave him an icy cold stare that read don't go there.


	4. Chapter 4

"So you're the guy that died and came back to life, eh?" Steven turned around at the sound of the girl' voice. "For the record, I didn't die, I just-..." He heard the girl gasp as they locked eyes. Steven felt like he'd seen this girl before like they were old friends. But in his sixteen years of life, he had never seen her before. Steven guessed that the girl was thinking the same thing since she gasped. "-disappeared" he said, continuing his sentence. The girl shook her head and replied " Robyn Freedman", she had a smug look on her face as she stuck out her hand. Steven shook her hand, as weird as it was. Ryan and Harani were sitting on the bench next to Steven, talking discreetly, before Ryan finally turned around "Oh hey, popular girl".

Robyn's cheeks turned a bright shade of red, "It's Robyn".

It was lunch. Ryan drew a smiley face in his mashed potatoes with his finger, " Yeah, I think i'll just call you popular girl". He scooped up some mashed potatoes with his finger and ate it. "Whatever, so Steven... where exactly were you all those months? I mean I wasn't there and I know I shouldn't pry... , but i'm just curious." Tamara leaned on the table and looked at Steven. Ryan and Harani patiently waited for an answer, "Yeah, you never actually told us where you went."

He was about to say something when he remembered what Jasmine had told him on the day Steven got his powers, the Convergence, "You can't tell them about this, Nothing about the Zodiac, Maxwell, or Vanguard. If you did, you'd be putting them in great danger, it's better if they didn't know what you can do". "Um, I don't really remember most of it..." He said, hating himself for having to lie to his best friends. "Are you sure? You can't remember one single thing?", Robyn leaned in farther into the table, casting a shadow across the cheap plastic styrofoam plates filled with mediocre food. Okay, Robyn was getting on Steven's last could almost hear the Tiger roar, begging to be let out. Steven was so tempted to tell Robyn off, but he held back. It took him a lot of strength to get the Tiger in him to calm down."Robyn, if Steven says he doesn't remember, he doesn't remember", Harani replied, defending Steven. "Whatever", Robyn walked away from the table.

Another guy came up to the table, "Hey, Ryan. Wanna sit with us instead of these losers?" He gestured to a table in front of them where 5 other guys sat, laughing. When Ryan started 10th grade, he'd been the most popular guy in school. In 9th, everybody thought he was a complete nerd. He had big, thick glasses; his hairstyle was not the best; and he had braces.

But that summer, Ryan actually got contacts, got a new hairstyle that suited him better and his braces got taken off. Ryan also found out that he was a natural athlete, he was just never picked for teams. He could have hung out with the popular kids, but Ryan got branded a loser the day he started hanging out with the weirdest kid in the 9th grade, Steven. Ryan almost looked like he was going to accept when he said, "Um, these losers are my friends and no".

"Suit yourself...loser", the guy murmured as the table started to laugh again. "Anyway, have you heard of Zodiac?", Harani asked, braiding a piece of her hair. Steven almost choked on his food at the sound of that, "Um, no, what is it?". Steven could barely keep from laughing. "Seriously, dude? In the week you've been back, i'm surprised you of all people don't know who they are", Ryan said, while Steven just shrugged. "Ugh, okay. They're this group of superheroes who save the world and stuff. And they are all freakin' awesome. The weird thing though, if you see them fighting in person you can see the silhouettes of kids. But when people try catching them on camera, all that shows up is a tiger, a goat or something, a bunny, a chicken, and a dragon. It's so weird, but it's so cool".

 _Hey, at least he got mine right_ , Steven thought. "And at every place they fight, they spray paint the words "We are Zodiac" onto the ground." Harani continued. _You can thank Roxanne for that little touch_. "Personally, I kind of think that they have something to do with the chinese zodiac since on camera they show up as a tiger, ram, rabbit, rooster, and a dragon. And their team name is Zodiac. So it obviously makes sense ", Harani replied, twirling a pen in her hand. _Of course, she would figure it out_ , Steven thought, _I just hope she doesn't find out about me_.

Harani was sitting at a table in the school's library. She took her phone out of her bag and pressed play on a video. She held the phone up close to her face so she could see the video better. Harani saw Steven, his fists clenched, his face expressing pure anger. Another kid stood across from Steven, his arms crossed, Stupid Brian, Harani thought. That guy had been bullying Steven since 4th grade, "So how's about you just go back to wherever you went missing from-". She heard a deep growling sound come through the phone, people at the nearby tables turned their heads up and looked at Harani.

"What are you looking at? Can't a girl watch a video?"

She said to the onlookers, who stopped looking and began reading again. Harani continued to watch the video, gasping as she stared back at the screen. She blinked her eyes for a few seconds, hoping that what she'd seen was just an illusion. For a split second, Harani thought she saw... No way, It can't be... She thought, rewinding the video back to a second before Steven had growled. As soon as Harani heard the growl, her eyes widened. She covered her hand over her mouth. "Oh god ".

"First of all, I'm very mad at you. It's my free period. And I don't really want to spend my free period at the librar-" Harani dragged Ryan through the library as he complained about how he usually spent his free period playing soccer on the field outside. "Second of all, I-", Harani turned to Ryan and put a hand over his mouth. "Come on. You need to see this... You're never going to believe what I found". She walked over to a table in the library and sat down. There was a laptop on the table, on it was the video of Steven's fight. Harani pressed play and took her hand off Ryan's mouth. Ryan watched the video with Harani. When it ended, he said "So? If you were trying to prove to me that Steven actually did growl, you didn't have to do thi-".

"Nothing out of the ordinary, right? Wait till I play it in slo-mo."

Harani interjected, rewinding the video to a few moments before Steven growled, then changing the video to slow motion. "Watch this." She pressed play on the video. Ryan's blinked his eyes as he heard Steven growl. _Oh Holy- It can't be real, can it?_ Ryan thought, his eyes growing wide at the video. "No way, this is real... Someone could have done something to it" ."This came directly from Amy's phone. And honestly I don't think she's smart enough to mess with a video and make it look this real", Harani said to Ryan, with a look of shock on his face.

"So what do we do?", Ryan crossed his arms and leaned back on a wall. "I don't think we do anything, this could only mean two things...", Harani paused the video and stared at the video, looking at Steven's face, then looking at Ryan, "What?". "Either Steven's not telling us something... or we're both going insane", Harani closed the laptop and placed it in her bag. She stood up from her chair and left the library, closing the doors behind her. Ryan just stood there, in a daze. He couldn't stop replaying the video in his mind. Steven growled, then for just a split second, he was replaced with a fierce roaring tiger.


	5. Chapter 5

Steven didn't really like the corn maze, on the other hand Harani and Ryan probably didn't like it either. When they asked to come along, Steven had asked why. Harani had changed the subject by asking Steven ,"Soooooo yogurt, huh? Eh, yogurt's not really my style, but I'll eat it. I mean- ". The only reason Steven had gone to the corn maze is because his parents had insisted and he didn't want to make them sad since they were trying to "be around more". Honestly, he kind of liked that his parents were paying more attention to him, it just felt really weird. Harani ran a hand along the wall of the corn maze as they turned a corner, just to find out that it was a dead end. "What are you doing?...", Harani asked, staring as Ryan like he was a alien. He had been collecting sticks from the ground and now had a full handful of them, "In case, we don't make it out of here before nightfall. Always good to be prepared, hehehe...". Ryan smiled a weak smile before Harani smacked all the sticks out of Ryan's hand. She gave him a not now face.

Steven's parents just stared at them.

For the next 30 minutes, Ryan and Harani just stared at Steven, like he was a science experiment. They tried to be discreet about it, but they weren't very good at it. They wandered in and out of dead ends. Tried to figure out which way was east, but then realized they were going west. Finally, they got tired and sat down. The sky was a pale orange now and Steven's watch said 7:30. "See?", Ryan pointed towards the sky, "I was right to have those branches with me... Hope you're happy, Harani!". Steven heard something. It sounded far away, like someone was yelling it, "I'm right here, Tiger! Come find me...". Steven stood straight up, looked around the hallway of corn that they'd stopped at and realized something, They're inside the maze... He took off at a run, his friends and family's screams growing fainter in the distance.

Harani watched as Steven ran off down deeper into the maze, screaming at the top of her lungs, "Steven! STEVEN! Come back! Come on, Ryan!". Ryan sat there, he asked, "What just happened?". Harani rolled her eyes, "Come on! We've got to follow him!" She ran in the same direction that Steven had gone, Ryan following suit on her tail. Steven's parents just looked at each other, then looked at Ryan and Harani running to catch up with Steven, and they ran too.

Steven slid to a stop at an open space inside the maze. Standing in the middle of it was Monkey. "Huh, never thought I'd see you again.", Steven said, letting all the Tiger energy he'd kept pent up this last week loose, "Oh well, doesn't really matter. You're going down anyway" . "You hurt Maxwell, now I will hurt you.", Monkey showed his fists and a figure of a smiling monkey grew on top of his head. Steven smirked, he heard the Tiger roar. He ran at Monkey, who held his arm out and hit Steven right in the nose.

He flipped and landed on his feet. He had never actually thought that the rumor that cats always landed on their feet was true, now he was living proof. He touched his nose with his hand and on his fingertips was blood. He got up and punched Monkey in the small of his back, making him collapse. As he fell, Monkey grabbed Steven's arm and pulled him down with him. Monkey rolled on top of Steven and attempted to punch Steven's face. But Steven dodged his punches, making Monkey punch dents in the ground. He kicked Monkey in his chest and got out from under him. Stopping to catch his breath, he saw Monkey get up and try to throw a punch. Steven caught Monkey's wrist and twisted it, flipping him onto his backside. Monkey got up, and tried to punch Steven, but Steven bended his back backwards like he was playing limbo. He kicked Monkey in the gut and was about to do it again, until he noticed something. A person watching him from behind a corn wall in the same direction he'd come from. Steven squinted his eyes so he could see the person better. Gray eyes, Red hair... wait? Red hair?. Ryan stared back at him, a look of total betrayal plastered on his face. Then, he saw Harani peek her head around the corner and stared at him. He looked at Harani, then at Ryan, right before the whole world went black.

Harani ran, as fast as her legs could carry her. Which wasn't fast. She could hear Ryan panting like a dog behind her and the rushed footsteps of Steven's parents hurrying to catch up. Steven had vanished, she never remembered him being so fast. In the distance, she heard grunts and growls. She turned a corner and almost slammed right into a wall. She stopped and slowly peaked her head around the corner. In the open field, were two a Tiger with a boys silhouette (who she now knew as Steven), and a Monkey (she had no idea who he was).

Ryan came running up behind her, "Hey? What's the hold u-", she clamped her hand tightly on Ryan's mouth and pointed to look around the wall. Ryan peered around the wall into the open space and his eyes widened in understanding. Steven's parents came running, "Where's Steven?", Harani changed the subject, "Hey Um, I think we left all our stuff where we were resting, maybe you can try and get it? We'll find Steven , we have a better chance of getting out of this maze if we split up". Steven's parents just nodded and ran back in the direction they'd came.

"Why didn't you tell them about Steven?", Ryan asked, watching Steven's parents run off into the maze. "Give me your phone" , she gestured her hand out to show that she meant it. "No seriously", Ryan crossed his arms and waited for an answer. "Just give me the phone!", Harani had a look of pure fury on her face so Ryan quickly took the phone out of his pocket and handed it to her. She opened the camera app, "I don't think we should show this to Steven's parents. Heck, I don't think Steven would want us showing this to his parents.", she took a photo of the fight. What appeared on the screen was a picture of a tiger. "Shouldn't we help him?", Ryan grinned like a leprechaun at the sight of the photo, "My best friend's a freakin' superhero!", he snatched the phone out of Harani's hands. The phone slipped and Ryan tried to grab it, but instead tripped himself and fell to the ground. Making himself a very easy and red-headed target in plain sight.

"Ow", Ryan complained, pretty sure he'd skinned his knee. He looked over at the fight, only to see Steven staring right at him. Harani walked out from around the bend. The man Steven had been had been fighting with, looked at them, then at Steven, then at them again and smiled. He punched Steven in the face, knocking him out cold.

Ryan scrambled to his feet, and glanced over at Harani, a look of shock on her face. "We've should help him... now." Harani admitted, running at the man and kicking him from behind. Ryan snatched rocks from the ground around him and hollered, "Steel Mongoose, away!". He hurled the rocks at the man as Harani pitch-kicked the man in the stomach, then karate-flipped him. "How'd you do that?" Ryan prayed for deer god as he pummeled the man, _please don't let him get up... please don't let me get killed..._ "Seriously? I've taken taekwondo since I was five!"

She caught her breath, just as the man got up and punched her in the face... well, almost did. Just as his fist hit her face, she held a finger up, "Give me a second" she gasped, out of breath. The man just stood there his fists still up, looking utterly confused. She took a few more deep breaths and punched him in the face, falling to the ground. "I may be a girl, but you messed with the wrong one", she stood over him, then punched him in the face one last time before the man's eyes finally closed.

"Did that just happen?", Ryan dropped the rocks he was holding and glanced over at Steven, who still lied on the ground unconscious, "What do we do about Steven?", Harani walked over to Steven and looked at him, then she yelled, "WAKE UP!". They waited a few seconds, before Steven finally said, "Steel Mongoose Away? Really, that was the best you could think of?", He sat up, and rubbed his head. Ryan grinned, "eh, helps me at big games", he shrugged grabbing Steven's hand and pulling him up.

Harani just stood there, the look of anger in her eyes, "I'm not moving from this spot until you tell us everything", she crossed her arms and looked like she was going to explode, which she might've. "Fine, but not here", Steven said, walking out of the field with Harani and Ryan. Ryan heard footsteps behind them, he looked back. The man that had been lying on the ground a few moments ago was gone.


	6. Chapter 6

Steven woke up somewhere, he didn't exactly know where. His vision was dotted with dark spots that kept bouncing all over the place. He couldn't get up either, every time he tried, his arms gave out under him from exhaustion. He couldn't remember everything... just the fight with Monkey... and the maze... Harani and Ry... Then, someone touched his arm. He sprang up despite his pain, his vision had cleared up just enough at that point that he was able to see Harani sitting in his desk chair, in his room. She was holding a plain cup of yogurt out to him, "You, um... kind of passed out as we left the maze so we took you home and got yogurt, so um... hope you like vanilla", she couldn't look Steven in the eyes.

Taking the cup, Steven asked between spoonfuls of yogurt, "I... thought you... didn't like... yogurt". Harani lifted her face up and smiled at him, "I never said I didn't like it... I just said it's not my style". Steven laughed at that, and then Harani did too, like . But then her smile disappeared and she turned away. Steven glanced over at Ryan who was watching one of Steven's Steel Mongoose movies and eating his own yogurt. Harani threw a shoe at Ryan's head who reacted by saying "Hey! I'm at the part where Steel Mongoose battles the Destroyer!". Steven laughed, "Just wait until you get to the part where he loses his powers..."

Ryan turned around, "Oh come on, man! I haven't seen his movie yet! Forget it...", he turned off the tv and swiveled his chair toward Steven looking him straight in the eyes, "Spill, now", Steven just looked at them pointing at his cup, "You want me to spill the yogurt?". Ryan laughed at that, then Harani gave him a look and he got serious again. "We're serious, Steven. Because I am literally trying so hard not to yell at you so don't test me", Harani stared at him, her brown eyes felt like lasers. "Okay, before anything, how did you find out?", Steven asked. Harani grabbed her phone out of her pocket, "Picture's worth a thousand words."

There was a video on the screen playing, Steven heard a growl sound and then he looked at the screen just in time to see his own face and then the Tiger energy surrounding him for just a split second, "Oh... that's how". Harani paused the video, "First of all, you don't growl. Second of all, you've been acting really weird ever since you got here. What happened in Hong Kong?". Ryan and Harani looked at Steven waiting for an answer. "Okay, you've got to understand that what happened in Hong Kong was an accident. Ryan, remember that room in the museum that had that missing exhibit?", Ryan thought for a second , then nodded.

"I saw our tour guide, you remember jumanne? Turns out her real name is jasmine. She's the dragon, if you're wondering. There was a door in the room. I could hear screams coming from behind it, then I saw our tour guide go through that door as well. So I kind of followed her. Turns out the museum was standing right on top of this huge circular room with twelve weird green glowing pools. I'm not crazy." After what seemed like hours, Steven finally finished explaining to them what happened. Ryan's mouth was hanging open, "Awesome." Harani looked at him, "Show me." Steven looked at her, "You mean this?". Steven put his hands out in front of him and balled them up into fists. A orange aura began glowing around them and an orange apparition of a tiger started to float around the room. "Holy. . ." Harani's mouth hung open, Ryan stood up and walked over to the tiger swiping his hand through it. "I'm dreaming. . .I'm freakin' dreaming". Harani regained her focus; she walked over to him and pinched his arm, "you're not dreaming." Then she punched Steven in the arm. "You do realize you're an idiot, Lee?".

"What? _Ow!_ "

"You followed someone into a door, found a psycho evil mastermind plotting to take over the world and you ended up with cool, but very weird powers and then went missing for 5 months. We were here worrying our butts off, while you were off saving the world."

Steven rubbed his arm, "Yeah, yeah sure. I'm an idiot. Now can you please stop hitting my arm? I think you broke something." Harani grinned, "I knew Taekwondo classes are paying off." Ryan just stared at both of us like they were both completely missing the big picture, "So uh, I know I've said this before but... what do we do now?"


	7. Chapter 7

_My best friend's a freakin' superhero!_ , thought Ryan. It had been a few weeks since they'd found out. And Ryan still couldn't get over it. In truth, he felt like shouting to the rooftops, " _I'm friends with a superhero! Suck it, Steve Tyler!_ "

But Steven had sworn him to secrecy, so that wasn't going to happen.

Ryan still wondered though, how much of a coincidence it was that Steven just _happened_ to stumble onto the chamber under the Hong Kong Museum, how the whole class had just _happened_ to be there right at the Convergence. It all seemed really weird.

Harani still acted weird around Steven, like he was something she didn't exactly know what to do with. They still talked, but it was awkward.

"Hey Steven."

"Oh hey, Harani."

"What's up?"

"Oh, nothing."

And that was where the conversation usually ended.

So Ryan felt like the middle ground.

But man, did it feel awesome to know that his best friend was a member of Zodiac.

Ryan watched the back of Steven's head. It was the middle of Civics class. It wasn't watching Steel Mongoose Movies, that's for sure. But it was fun for Ryan to think that there were lasers coming out of his eyes, melting Steven's head into oblivion. Ryan wondered if Steven had lasers. Then, Ryan decided never to get Steven mad ever again.

His Civics teacher, Mr. Raymer was talking about the Revolutionary War. At least, Ryan _thought_ he was talking about the Revolutionary War. He wasn't listening. Ryan never listened. Watching Steven made his head hurt. Because Ryan knew that Harani was watching him. And Ryan was watching Steven. And Steven was watching Robyn doing something with her pencils. Ryan remembered the day that Robyn and Steven met. They both acted kind of weird around each other, Ryan realized.

39 minutes had passed.

And Steven was still staring intently at Robyn. Melting Steven's head into oblivion had gotten boring. And just when Ryan's head was 2 inches away from smashing into the desk, Robyn quickly glanced at the clock and rose her hand.

That woke Ryan right up.

"Yes?", Mr. Raymer said, like he was already bored himself.

"Uh, can I go to the bathroom?"

Mr. Raymer nodded his head and Robyn left the classroom and took all her stuff with her.

3 minutes passed.

5 minutes passed.

10 minutes passed.

Robyn still hadn't come back. Mr. Raymer didn't seem to notice. After another 5 minutes, the bell finally rung and the classroom emptied out rather quickly. Steven didn't get up from his seat until everyone was gone, even the teacher who had gone to the bathroom himself. Harani and Ryan walked up to Steven. "Dude, are you okay?"

Steven replied, "Yeah, why?"

"Ummm...", Ryan took a pencil from Steven's hand. It was snapped right in half. "I don't know...there's just something weird about Robyn", Steven started to walk over to Robyn's seat. Harani finally spoke, "What?", Ryan and Harani were both following Steven now.

"I don't know. I just feel like I know her. She feels fami-", Steven stopped, he was looking at something on the floor. "What are you staring at?", Harani pushed Steven aside and said," Oh,that's _weird_." "What? What?", Ryan walked up next to Harani. An impossible idea was forming in Ryan's mind, and he brushed it away. _No, it's not possible_. Then, he thought about it some more. _No, but it isn't impossible_. It was like an annoying notification on a phone that just refused to be ignored. Ryan guessed Harani and Steven were thinking the same thing. "Wow, that is _weird_."

On the floor in front of them, directly underneath Tamara's desk, were at least 15 brand-new pencils, all of which were split in two in jagged splintered edges.

Tamara had snapped all of them in half, like they were toothpicks.


	8. Chapter 8

Steven walked away from them and ran to the door. Harani sighed, running after Steven, "Not this again." Ryan followed Harani and Steven out into the hallway, "What now?". Harani asked Steven. He didn't answer.

Steven looked around at the crowd of students, his eyebrows furrowed in frustration. The alarmed look on Steven's face was enough to make Ryan's stomach flip. "Steven, dude. Are you okay?", Ryan touched Steven's shoulder and he flinched away from him. The noise in the hallway was so deafening that Ryan couldn't hear his own heart beating loudly in his chest. He could feel it. The bell rang again, and everyone shuffled into their classrooms. Soon Steven, Ryan, and Harani were the only people in sight. Steven eyed the exit door near the end of the hallway and ran toward it. Ryan noticed that the door was still closing. Someone had gone out.

Robyn.

Ryan suddenly heard the clicking of heels against tile, and it sent shivers up his spine. _Click!_

The hall monitor.

 _Clack!_ The three of them glanced at each other nervously, Ryan could tell that they were all thinking the same thing. _What are we going to do?_ For some reason, he pictured himself falling to his knees in front of the hall monitor and yelling, _"I surrender!",_ Ryan chuckled. Harani and Steven looked at him, "What? Can't a guy laugh?"

 _Click!_

Getting closer.

 _Clack!_

Ryan thought it sounded like the hall monitor was right around the next bend. They needed to think of something now. And fast. Ryan gulped. Just as he saw the high-heeled foot of someone turning the corner, Steven grabbed the door and grabbed Ryan by the arm, pulling him out the door, Harani quickly followed. Ryan yelled at Steven, "Whoooa-!", then quickly slapped his hand over his mouth. It hurt.

Mrs. Dendropolis, the math teacher turned the corner, carrying a clipboard in her hand. She looked extremely bored, she didn't want to be here. During her lunch break, the principal had shoved at her a clipboard and blank detention notes and said,"Could you do this for me, Julia? Thanks." The principal had walked away without even asking her if she wanted to do it. And now she was stuck on hall monitor duty. _Yayyyy._ Why did Julia have to insist on wearing these heels today? Walking around all day was killer on her feet, Julia needed to sit down _now_. She thought she heard something, no, _someone_. She looked down the hallway and back the way she came. No one. Then, she noticed the emergency exit door was silently ajar. Then, she wondered who opened it in the first place. Whatever. The school district didn't pay her enough to think about that.

Julia was pushing the door closed and thought, _Good thing the school district is too cheap to pay for alarms to be installed in the doors...my ears would be ringing all afternoon_. She heard something again, like a twig snapping in half. Julia pulled the door open again, peering outside in the too-intense brightness. Nobody there. Again. She was hearing things, Julia concluded and closed the door completely. She shrugged and continued to walk down the hallway, _click-clacking_ as she went.

 _Click! Clack! Click! Clack! Click! Clack!..._

Right behind the school are the woods. The school tells people not to go in there, but-nobody listens. Steven ran through the forest at an astonishing speed, wind and leaves slapped him in the face and thorns brushed his legs, tearing wide holes in his pants. Harani was right on his tail, she kept shouting,"Hey Steven, where are you going! Also, could you _please_ slow down? You do remember not all of us have inhuman stamina and speed, right?!"

Steven didn't know where Ryan was, although he did remember him stopping to catch a breath a few trees back. "Yeah! What she said!" Ryan shouted from somewhere behind him. Nevermind. Steven actually didn't know what he was doing. He didn't even think he was controlling his own feet. But somehow the Tiger was guiding him to Robyn. _Left. Right. Right. Turn left at that big tree. Duck! Left. No...Wait! Right._ Steven stopped in front of a large clearing, trees surrounded him from all sides. Harani and Ryan came up from behind him, although Ryan tripped over a branch and fell on his face, "Ow", he moaned. "Are you okay?". Ryan got up and caught his breath, "Oh no...I'm...totally fine...I just...ran...like 2 freaking' miles...into the middle of... nowhere...Yeah... _totally_ fine."

"What is it, Steven? And don't tell me you ran out here for the hell of it because I'm missing class right now and I _will strangle you_." Harani looked like she might explode. "I don't know. There's just-" The ground rumbled, small pieces of earth kept flinging off the ground in synchronized bursts, like paint in a speaker. "Did you feel that?", Steven held his ground, but Harani and Ryan looked like they might fall over, "Nooo, really? I didn't feel anything", Ryan said sarcastically. The bursts became more frequent , someone was getting closer. Steven suddenly had the urge to get out of sight, he grabbed Ryan by his arm again and hid behind a bush on the outskirts of the clearing. Ryan pried Steven's hand off his arm and said annoyingly, "Stop grabbing my arm!"

"Sorry", Steven shrugged apologetically just as Harani slid behind the bush, "What?" Steven pointed at the clearing, _look_. He didn't know what he was looking at, but he knew something was about to happen. The rumbling got louder and someone raced into the clearing, stopping in the center. Steven saw a flash of brown. The run was enough to kick up dust which enveloped the whole clearing, making it impossible to see who was running. Although Steven had a guess. The dust even reached them and Ryan started coughing like there was no tomorrow. "Ugh...well, excuse me...while...I...die," Ryan exaggerated. Steven looked back, the person wasn't there anymore. Suddenly, he heard a voice. A _girl's_ voice. "Test #19, I'm getting faster and stronger. I accidently pulled my doorknob off yesterday morning and...just did like 2 miles in 10 minutes..."

Harani and Ryan looked at Steven. They recognized that voice. Same as he did. Finally, the dust cleared and standing there was none other than Robyn Freedman, holding her phone to close to her mouth, speaking into it. She wasn't even sweating. Both Harani and Ryan's eyes grew wide and Ryan's jaw dropped to the floor. Steven guessed they had thought about it too, but couldn't accept it.

Through the remaining dusty haze, Steven saw an apparition of a Horse, growing larger and larger above Robyn's head.


	9. Chapter 9

"Cool", Ryan whispered as he stood, leaves crunching under his feet loudly. "Shh, be quiet", Steven put his finger to his lips. "But it's the leaves." Steven whispered loudly, "Then tell the leaves to be quiet!" Ryan stood perfectly still, and the crunching noise stopped. "What I want to know is how she became the Horse", Steven said, peering over the bush they were hiding behind at Tamara. Harani glanced at him for a moment, "I thought you told me that other lady Josie was the Horse."

"She is, or she was anyway." Harani put a hand to her mouth, as if calculating something,"Do you think she gave it away?" Steven thought about it for a moment," Can you even do that? Can you just willingly give it away?" Ryan. Being the do first, think later kind of guy he is said, "Well, I'm about to find out." He was about to step out from behind the bush when Steven held him back, "Don't." Ryan gave Steven a confused expression, "Why not?" "I just...I just want to know the facts before we jump to conclusions", Steven said with a slight twinge of nervousness in his voice. A look of surprise crossed Ryan's face, why was Steven nervous? Ryan gestured his arms toward Tamara dramatically and replied, "Dude, she ran like 5 freakin' miles and doesn't look like she might die from exhaustion. And we both clearly saw the horse floating above her head." Steven opened his mouth to reply, but then closed it, unable to find the words.

Ryan smirked, "Exactly", he put one foot on the other side of the bush as Steven pulled him back,"Wait." Harani was staring at Tamara, who had noticed voices and was now walking closer and closer to them. Tamara was currently about 9 feet away from them. Harani kept whispering at them,"Shut up. Shut up! Shut up! Oh my god. Boys.". "What are you doing?", Ryan said accusingly. "Tamara will be really mad at us if she finds out we followed her and-", Steven said nervously. " So what? You're the Tiger, aren't you?", Ryan gave Steven an elfish grin. "Guys...", Harani pleaded. Tamara was a mere 5 feet away. "Yeah, but-". Ryan interrupted, "Why are you so nervous?" Steven's face went from being Nervous to extremely serious instantly, "I'm not nervous..."

"Who's there?", Tamara said, closing the gap between her and them by 2 feet. Harani was just about ready to duct-tape their mouths closed. If she had any duct-tape, of course. Ryan blew Steven off, "Whatever", he walked out from behind the bush, but tripped on Steven's foot by mistake, so it looked like he was falling straight through the bush. As he fell, Ryan thought, Huh, Death by Clumsiness.

No, he wasn't going to die. But when he hit the ground, it sure felt like it for a moment. Then, he looked up. A look of disbelief was plastered on Tamara's face. Ryan smiled and looked at Tamara. But he had to squint because the sun was in his eyes, he waved at her, "Oh, um, hey. Nice seeing you here."


	10. Chapter 10

Ryan stood up abruptly, brushing the dirt off his pants. Tamara crossed her arms and looked at him in annoyance and a twinge of anger. "What are you doing here?,"she said. Ryan smirked, "Well, ummmm...," He then went into a long winded conversation about how he got there, all of which included a duck, a six-inch piece of string, and cough drops. Five minutes later, Tamara's eyes looked like they might bulge out of her head, she shook her head almost as if in a trance and said,"Wait, what?"

Ryan sighed, and replied,"You were acting weird all day so I followed you." She stared at him in confusion and probably a bit of suspicion and said wearily,"Okay?" Ryan just looked at her,"And you came here alone?"Tamara started to walk away from Ryan, her eyes glancing at the bush from which he'd fallen out of. Ryan's eyes widened and he stepped in front of Tamara before she got to close and saw Harani and Steven, "No. I came here alone." Behind his back, Ryan made a go-away gesture with his hands and he hoped Steven would listen. Tamara looked at him suspiciously,"Are you sure your friends didn't follow you?" Ryan's eyebrow raised a bit, "My friends?..."It took him a second to realize who she was talking about,"Oh, you mean Harani and Steven?" She glanced at him for a moment and then responded,"yeah, them," Tamara flicked her hand when she said that. "Why? Is there some reason you wouldn't want them following you?,"Ryan said, almost accusingly. She then turned around and looked at him, her face hard and serious,"That Steven kid creeps me out in a weird way. And the girl-well, let's just say I wouldn't want to cross her."

Ryan wondered if Steven was holding back Harani from behind the bush, he could almost imagine her jumping out of the bush and shouting,"What's that supposed to mean?" He chuckled slightly until a hand brought him back to reality. Tamara was waving her hand in front of his face,"Hellooo. Earth to Ryan." He shook his head,"Sorry, what?"

Tamara gave him a look that Ryan didn't quite get and then continued,"Whatever...well?" Ryan's eyebrows furrowed in confusion,"Well, what?",he said with a bit of amusement in his voice."Aren't you going to ask about the...,"she walked closer to him and whispered,"the, um, powers?" Ryan's heart jumped a bit, This is literally the closest I have ever been to a girl!...Well ,of course there was that one time when Harani flipped me over her shoulder and-, Ryan thought, vaguely remembering how bad his ribs had hurt after the move had backfired and Harani had fallen on top of him. Ryan suddenly felt like the breath had been knocked out of him and he winced, suddenly feeling the need to touch his chest. Ryan shook his head again,"You mean the horse that was hovering above your head a few minutes ago?," He pointed behind himself into the trees. "Uhh, yeah,"She said, as if it was most obvious thing in the world,"Aren't you going to ask how I got them?" Ryan desperately wanted to, but he backed off,"If you don't want to tell me, don't tell me. I'm fine with it", he casually crossed his arms and gave her a sly grin. Ryan saw a hint of a frown cross her face,"Don't worry. I'll keep your secret." He patted her shoulder twice and began to walk back in the direction of the school before Tamara said,"Don't you want to at least know why I sneaked off?"

Ryan turned around,"Why are you so determined to tell someone?" She walked up to him,"Have you ever kept a secret? But, like a really big secret?,"Ryan shook his head, of course he'd told a bunch of lies, most of them to his parents."Then, you wouldn't really get it. I had to tell someone. It felt like it was kind eating away at me from the inside. You know?", Tamara walked away from Ryan,"No, you don't get it because-"."No, I get it. Well, kind of. You can tell me if you want. People say I'm a very good listener." Tamara laughed and looked at him weirdly,"Ryan Deangelo, you are probably the weirdest person I have ever met."

Harani saw the door open and Ryan walked in. After Ryan had made the go-away gesture with his hand, Harani and Steven had found their way to Steven's house. Ryan looked at her through his red hair and laughed. Harani brought her hands up in confusion,"What?" Ryan covered his mouth trying to stifle his laughs,"Nothing." Harani rolled her eyes,"Whatever."

Ryan then looked at Steven,"Dude, I don't get why you were so scared of her back there. She's actually pretty nice once you get to know her." Steven replied,"She just weirds me out." Ryan walked over to his usual chair in the corner of the room in front of the tv, where he frequently watched Steven's massive collection of Steel Mongoose Movies. He called it the "spinny chair" because he didn't know the official name of it. And because he liked spinning in the chair and getting extremely dizzy a few moments later. Harani always called him a baby because he called it that. "Dude, that's probably because she's the freakin' Horse."

Ryan blew a strand of red hair out of his eyes, just to have it flop right back into place, he sighed. Then, he realized something,"Hm, Small World." Steven stood up and threw his arms up in frustration,"I don't know...maybe?"He paced around the room a few times and then sat back down again."Are you going to tell her that you're the Tiger?" Ryan asked. Steven glanced at him and thought about it,"Maybe."Harani walked over to him,"She is going to find out sooner or later. Might as well tell her now." Steven kept thinking,"Let's wait a while. I've got this bad feeling about her." Harani crossed her arms,"So basically you're saying because you don't trust her." Steven made an eh sign with his hand. "Wait. What if Ryan hangs around Tamara a bit, just to see if your hunch is actually something worth looking into or something you ate." Steven ignored the comment,"You know. That's not a bad idea."

Ryan looked at both of them quizzingly, then realized what they were getting at,"So I'm like a spy?", He looked at them hopefully,"Cool."


	11. Chapter 11

Celine picked up the receiver. And typed in a code as she held the phone in her manicured hands. 1693. And waited for the phone to start ringing and then put the phone to her ear. Finally, the call went through and a loud voice told her,"Hello, Celine." The voice sounded disoriented and tinny, probably from a bad connection. She ignored him,"It's been weeks. When are you going to move on with the plan?", Celine tucked a piece of her dark hair behind her left ear, making sure to let the hair on the other side of her head cover her right eye completely,"What exactly is the point of being the snake if you don't do anything? And honestly, I'm bored."

The voice on the other end of the line paused for a second before answering,"I was going to contact you tomorrow to discuss the details." Celine swatted a fly away from her ear. She was currently living in a small one room in a hotel in Shanghai. The walls were covered in wallpaper that was a dull beige color and small dainty flowers on them. Needless to say, Celine didn't like it. She leaned forward onto the table, "Tell me now, then." A loud sigh could be heard through the phone, the voice continued,"Go to America. Pennsylvania. Take Nicky with you." Celine raised her one visible eyebrow, America? She knew Nicky was the Dog, why did she need him, though?

"What's in America?" Celine said, tapping her fingers on the table, the nails rapping loudly against the wood. They were pointy and sharp-looking at the tips; Painted a dark emerald green color. "The Tiger and his little friends. And Horse." She drew in a sharp breath,"Josie's there? With them?,"She spit out the last word as if it were a curse word. For a second, a thought crossed Celine's mind, had Josie gone over to their side? "No. Another horse," the voice said, Celine thought she heard a tinge of pride in the voice. "What? Isn't Josie the Horse?" She asked.

"Not anymore. She gave up the Horse." What? That doesn't sound like Josie, Celine thought. She and Josie had never been friends, or talked much for that matter, but she knew that Josie had loved being the Horse. She would never give it up. Not for the world. Not for anything. Something wasn't right about this. Celine started to pace around her room. Nevermind, Celine needed to concentrate. "Who's the new Horse?"

"A girl. Named Tamara Drixby", She chuckled softly, what a funny name. She walked over and looked out into the bright Shanghai skyline in her window. "What do I have to do? And why do I have to bring Nick?", Celine didn't like calling Nick by his actual name, Nicky. It seemed childish."I'll tell you the full details on the plane, as for why Nicky is coming with you. That's for only Nicky to find out. He'll join you on the plane at the Shanghai airport." Celine ground her teeth together in frustration. "Why can't you tell me now?

"I'd rather have both of you there for me to explain in detail." The voice said calmly. Celine's eyebrows furrowed in anger, she slammed a fist down on the table,"Then tell me my part of the plan!"Despite always being so calm and quiet around the others, Celine got easily angered. "See you in a few days." And with that, the voice hung up and the call ended, sending a loud beeping sound out of the receiver. At the sound of the dial tone, Celine swore loudly and shouted at the phone,"Maxwell!" She slammed down the receiver onto its stand and groaned. She put her weight on the table as she took a deep breath. She thought for a second and sighed. Nothing else to do...

She picked up the phone again and dialed a number. When the call went through, Celine spoke calmly in Chinese,"I need a plane to Pennslyvania, U.S.A. Tomorrow from the Shanghai International Airport."

Celine sat down, sinking into the beige leather seat and looked out the window to her left. Airport workers were prepping the plane for takeoff, which would happen in less than an hour. Nick was sitting in the seat across from her, looking at something outside. It was 1:56 in the afternoon and the plane was empty except for the two of them, no passengers were on it yet. And no passengers would get on the plane. Maxwell had managed to get herself and Nick a small private jet to take them to America.

She played with her nails for a second before Nick asked,"So what exactly is this plan that Maxwell has for us?" Celine looked at him before answering,"I don't know." The conversation ended after that and she played with her nails again. A while later, a middle-aged man with short black hair boarded the plane. He was wearing a pilot's uniform,"Ready to fly?", the Vanguard pilot asked in Chinese. Nick's eyebrows furrowed in confusion as he leaned next to Celine and whispered,"What did he say?"

Celine rolled her eyes as the pilot took his seat in the cockpit and the plane began to take off. When Celine knew the pilot was busy and that no one else on the plane could hear them, she turned her attention to the big tv at the front of the plane. She pressed a button on her phone as Nick looked at her confusingly. The tv turned on, its first images being static images of black and white before a camera feed appeared on the screen from somewhere in the Austrailian Outback. Nick's eyes widened and he suddenly sat up a bit straighter. Maxwell appeared on the screen, his face hard and serious and a dirty gray background behind him, a small desk in front. "Hello, Nicky," he said, then turned to look at Celine herself,"Celine."

"Maxwell," she acknowledged, crossing her arms in front of her chest. Nick broke the awkward silence,"So Max. What's this plan of yours?" Maxwell folding his hands in front of him and said,"This is for Nicky to hear."Maxwell said that to Celine, who angrily walked into the small bathroom at the back of the room and shut the door behind her. Celine heard soft muffled voices and got down on her knees to put her ear to the paper-thin crack in the door in the hope of hearing something. But the only thing she heard was noises. Gibberish she could make no sense of. When the voices finally stopped, she walked back out and sat back down in her chair, casting a lethal glance at Nick as she did, Nick slid just a little bit farther into his seat. "Now. What's my part of the plan?" She said, turning her gaze calmly to Maxwell.

As Maxwell explained the plan to Celine, or what Maxwell wanted Celine to know of the plan, a small grin grew wider and wider with every word. Celine's pearly white teeth peeked through her lips as she grinned widely. Celine felt her eyes flash bright green for a second and she grinned even wider.

When the call ended, Celine smirked. Looking out the window into the endless blue sea below her, the water reflected by the sun. Celine thought, Another 19 hours to go.


	12. Chapter 12

Celine swatted a fly, brushing a leaf away from her face. She groaned loudly as she saw her foot lodged in a small pit of mud, ruining her boots. She heard birds and other sounds all around her. Celine walked a bit farther. It was about midday and she had been walking the woods in Pennsylvania for about a half hour. I really hope Maxwell's plan is worth this, she thought.

Celine kept walking through the woods until she reached a street, and beyond that a fairly large house. No cars were in its driveway. Walking out of the woods and onto the street, Celine slowly approached the house and walked around to the back. Celine saw there was a small window there and she peered inside.

Celine looked at a clutter of a room, superhero posters hung from every wall. A tv sat in the corner, a pile of DVDs stacked up high next to it, a swivel chair sat in the corner. Celine laughed amusingly. This was the Tiger's room? She saw the doorknob turn slightly to the right and Celine hid behind the wall, catching only glimpses of the door opening and the Tiger walking through the door. He had a backpack slung over his shoulder which he tossed onto his bed. Tiger ran a hand through his hair as he sat down in the chair. Celine allowed herself to peer a little more into the window. She saw Tiger's eyebrow's furrow in confusion as he looked up. His eyes widened at the sight of her and he stood up abruptly, running over to the window. He pulled open the window,"What are you doing-"

Celine felt her eyes turn an emerald green and Tiger's eyes went blank. Celine felt the Snake hiss and she smirked widely. "Go out of the house. Go find the Horse," Celine poured as much venom into her voice as she could. The Tiger slowly walked out of his room and Celine heard the door close behind him. Grinning, she closed the window as to not draw attention followed the Tiger down the street.

Ryan slurped some milkshake through the straw, the smell of the fries in the bag wafting up into his nose. Ryan had gone to a fast-food place around the corner from his house and gotten fries and chocolate milkshakes, for him and Steven to share while they did their homework, mostly known as rewatching Steel Mongoose movies. Although Ryan planned to eat them all. He was about 5 minutes away from Steven's house before he had a sudden thought. I wonder how fries AND milkshakes taste together. He'd seen someone on tv try it the day before. Ryan quickly dunked a fry into the thick chocolate shake before stuffing it in his mouth. He chewed for a few seconds before his eyes widened and he quickly spit it out. "Oh god. That is disgusting!" Ryan said. Note to Self: Never do that again.

Ryan suddenly heard a loud clank! He looked to his right, into a dark alley on his left. He instinctively walked closer before stopping himself. No. Ryan. Never go into the dark alley, Ryan thought, remembering all of the horror movies he'd ever seen. One character walks into the basement or dark alley while the whole audience is screaming,"Don't go into the basement!" And what do they do? They go into the basement! And ya know what happens? The psycho maniac killer comes out of the shadows and stabs them to death!

Ryan quickly turned away from the alley and began slowly walking away. Another loud clank! rang out from the small space and Ryan felt a strange pull towards the alley. His curiousity got the best of him and he started walking closer. "Hello?" Ryan said meakly, meanwhile in his head he was screaming, Crap! Crap! You Idiot! Great. This is how it ends! Darn me! Ryan quickly came up with a plan in his head, look around for a minute then run. He still had the bag of fries and the 2 milkshakes clutched between his trembling hands, his knuckles turning white.

He walked closer to the alley, all the while firing swears loudly in his head. He heard the sound again and Ryan walked into the darkness. It was the middle of the day so it made no sense for the alley to be so dark. It sent a chill up Ryan's spine. He heard the sound again, but this time it sounded a lot more like footsteps, getting closer and closer. Ryan started to walk backward,"Well if no one's here. I'll be leaving." The footsteps seemed to get closer and Ryan's pound a bit faster in his chest. Ryan's feet moved a bit faster. The footsteps got closer. Ryan gulped. Closer... And then out of the darkness, a small dog walked out of the shadows. Ryan sighed a breath of relief, and he crouched down ruffling the dog's dirty brown fur. "Well, at least it wasn't some psycho trying to kill me." Ryan chuckled and thought, Ha. It was a dog! I overreacted.

Ryan stood up and start to walk out of the alley before Ryan heard a loud footstep and a large hand grabbed him from behind wrapping a large piece of white fabric around his nose and mouth. Another hand grabbed his hands and dragged him further into the darkness. Ryan suddenly felt very drowsy and he held his breath. Ryan looked up, his eyes widening at the sight of a large dog staring back at him, his large white teeth smiling proudly. His heart sped up again and Ryan tried to elbow the man in the chest, kicking his feet, or hitting the man. He didn't even seem to notice.

Who is this guy? Didn't Steven tell me something about a Dog? On Maxwell's side? Ryan yelled at Dog, "Hey! Let me go!" Although it came out like,"Hur! Le meh gu!" He continued to kick Dog, until Ryan felt his arms grow weak and soon they hung limply at his sides, his feet dragging against the concrete. Ryan suddenly realized he'd dropped the milkshakes and the fries at the entrance to the alley. When Dog had grabbed him. Great! There goes my allowance!

That was Ryan's last thought before his mind faded into blackness and he passed out.


	13. Chapter 13

Harani dropped her phone and looked around. She was in the middle of the street, near the curb with neatly-trimmed grass lining the sidewalk. There were no cars in sight and houses all painted a similar beige color ran all the way down the block. Harani saw to see a bright robin-egg blue house at the end of the block. She picked up her phone and noticed a small dent on its metallic gold exterior and frowned. Harani scratched at the dent for a moment, then turned it back over and swiping her thumb up, completed a level for a game on her phone.

Harani began walking again, her feet soon hitting the sidewalk. Her face glued to her phone, occasionally looking up to make sure she was still walking on the sidewalk and not in the middle of the road. In the distance, she saw a large beige-colored house on the curb. She saw the familiar window in the back of the house, inside superhero merchandise lining every wall. No cars in the driveway. Harani grabbed the strap of her backpack and walked toward the house.

Steven had asked her and Ryan to catch him up on school since he was gone for 5 months. Which Harani was still mad about. After that, Ryan had proceeded to make a joke about ketchup, which then led Harani to punch him lightly in the arm.

She laughed thinking about the memory and put the phone in her back pocket. Harani leaned against the wall and crossed her arms. Another 5 minutes passed before Harani saw Steven come from the opposite direction and walk up to her. "Mr. Singh has successfully achieved in overloading my brain with too many formulas", he said playfully. Harani laughed, "At least we know you're good at vocab". Steven chuckled and took a small bronze key out of the pocket in his jacket, inserting it into the keyhole. Turning until the wooden door before them opened silently. "Seriously, I think someone scrambled it in a frying pan like _eggs_ scrambled."

"And I think", Harani calmly stepped through the doorway,"that you are spending too much time with Ryan. You're starting to sound like him." Steven walked into the house as well and closed the door behind him. "Sure." He gave her a sideways smile, his teeth slightly peeking through. She smiled slightly as Steven walked past her into his room down a separate hallway from the living room. He stopped and turned around, "If you want something to drink, my mom put Caprisuns in the fridge." Harani crossed her arms and laughed, "Seriously?" Steven awkwardly rubbed the back of his neck and replied, "My parents treat me like a kid. Don't ask."

Leaving the conversation at that, Steven walked into his room while Harani walked into the kitchen and opened the fridge. On the top shelf were a dozen Caprisuns still in their box. Harani tucked a strand of black hair behind her ear and reached up for the top shelf, feeling around in the box for one. Grabbing one, she studied it for a second, then laughed. How long had it been since she'd had one of these? Three, Four years? "Steven-", Harani's voice shut off when she heard what sounded like the loud opening of a door or window, a voice, then another voice and the sound of a door slamming.

Harani walked out of the kitchen, still holding the Caprisun in her hands,"Um, Steven?" Steven walked slowly out of the hallway. He walked right past her like she wasn't even there. "Steven?" Harani watched as he walked slowly toward the door. Harani walked to Steven, "Hey!", Harani stood in front of Steven, just as he was about to open it. She gasped, waving her hand in front of his face. Nothing. is eyes had a slight bright greenish-tint about them that wasn't there before. His face was emotionless, like a mindless drone. Her eyes got wide at the sight of Steven and she started shaking him violently and snapping her fingers in front of his face. "Hello! Steven! Wake up!"

He just pushed past her and walked out the door. Harani watched unbelievably as he started walking into the woods just across the street from his house.

Then, she did an equally unbelievable thing herself.

She followed him.

|\|/|

Robyn stood under the shade of a tree at the edge of the clearing. Taking in the breeze and the silence of the woods. It was extremely hot out today and she had stopped running. It was too hot to run. She thought. It was too hot to do anything.

Robyn was doing an experiment. Two months ago, she'd been at school and had felt very sick and had gotten sent home. The next morning when Robyn woke up, she had broken her alarm clock to pieces after repeatedly pounding it to stop ringing. Then, she'd broken off the doorknob to her bathroom, and she had been half-asleep at the time. So she'd started doing tests, being the little scientist her mom always called her. Robyn had run less than a mile her first test. Now, she was able to run 5 miles without breaking a sweat. And she was getting stronger, too. Yesterday, she'd managed to punch a large hole in an old ratty punching bag she'd found in her garage, letting all the sand leak out. Her dad would be asking her about that tomorrow.

Robyn had never thought that she was a Horse. She'd thought that maybe it was some weird condition she had or some sort of disease that gave her superstrength before slowly killing her. It was actually Ryan that gave her the suggestion that she somehow had the same abilities as that group he always talked about when he'd found out only a week earlier. All this time she'd thought it was some condition. But a potential answer had been smacking her in the face on the news. Zodiac had been on the news several times in the past few weeks and months. Robyn didn't watch the news. But whenever she did, she always noticed someone was missing. She started noticing it a few weeks ago, right around the time that Steven kid showed up. Steven gave her the creeps. No. More like they knew each other, but Robyn had never seen the guy before. So that made no sense.

Robyn was sucked back into reality as she looked up, hearing a small footstep in the trees on the other side of the clearing. She squinted into the trees, trying to see through the blazing sun. Robyn heard another small footstep and stepped out of the shade and into the clearing. "Who's there!", she yelled half-heartedly.

After that, Robyn didn't remember much. She walked closer to the trees, inch by inch, step by step, and her eyes suddenly rested on two faces. The first, a boy's face with dark hair, the face was familiar. Steven. Robyn's eyebrows arched in surprise. The face to his right, well, Robyn didn't know who that was. It was a woman's face, with smooth, jet black hair, swooped to one side of her face, so only the left side of her face was visible. The woman gave Robyn a sly grin and her eyes suddenly flashed bright green. Robyn blinked a few times, had she seen that? A woman's eyes suddenly turning a violent shade of green? That can't be real.

The woman's eyes turned green again and Robyn felt her feet slowly move forward, toward the woman. Robyn halted for a second as her stomach turned over in revolt and fear. _What am I doing?_ , she thought, suddenly backing up. But she wasn't backing up, she was glued to the spot. Hesitatingly, her feet began moving forward again. Robyn yelled at herself to stop, she didn't like this. Not being in control of your own body. It terrified her.

As Robyn walked closer to the woman, dark spots clouded Robyn's eyes and her mind slipped into the dark.

Meanwhile, Harani stood wide-eyed behind a tree, watching as the Snake took the Horse and the Tiger.


	14. Chapter 14

There was a cold metal table beneath Ryan, giving him goosebumps on his arms. The last thing he remembered was the alley. A cloth covering his mouth. Milkshakes and Fries...and a humanish dog looking down at him.

Ryan's felt his heart sped up. He kicked his legs, but they wouldn't move. They kept knocking against what sounded like metal. He opened his eyes. He was on a table. But a metal mold was encased around his body, keeping him secured to the table. Ryan took sharp, quick breaths as he tried to move his arms. They wouldn't move either. He kept knocking them against both sides of the mold, again and again, the metal giving a loud _thunk!_ as he did. Ryan made a fist and hit the side of the mold, not even making a dent. The only thing that could move was his head.

Ryan started to take notice of his surroundings. He looked to the side, a gray wall with no windows stared back. Ryan turned his head to the other side, a man looked at him. And Ryan thought he saw pity in the man's face. His skin was a dark tan color and he wore armor. He had a tattoo on his left arm that peeked through his collar. He also looked extremely buff.

He looked up. Another man looked down at him. He had a buzzcut cut close to his head and he had a sadistic smirk plastered on his face. Steven had told him about this guy, he searched his memories for a name. When Ryan finally remembered, he said, "Maxwell."

Maxwell laughed and walked out of Ryan's view. Ryan heard Maxwell say from somewhere on his left, "Did Steven tell you that?" Ryan didn't answer. He just kept knocking his fist on the side of the mold, pretty sure a purple bruise would appear there later. He heard footsteps walk toward him and Maxwell was there at the edge of the table, looking down at Ryan again.

"I wouldn't try that. It's made from titanium alloy", Ryan still didn't answer. Maxwell frowned sarcastically, "The shy type, are you?". This time, Ryan did answer, "What do you want?" Maxwell scoffed, "It's not what I want. It's what I can give _you_."

"What?" Ryan's eyebrows arched in confusion. Maxwell didn't reply, instead he looked away, walking out of Ryan's view again. He did notice a small bronze sphere behind Maxwell's back, in his hands. Ryan turned his head as he heard Maxwell's footsteps cross to the other side of the room. His red hair was blocking Maxwell, but he saw Maxwell give the man the sphere and the man returning with a grim nod.

Ryan suddenly noticed the reflection of a red light on his nose. And for the first time felt two metal devices stuck to his forehead, both glowing a bright red. Ryan tried to touch them with his hand, then remembered his arms were still trapped beneath the mold when his arms hit metal. He heard his heart start pounding loudly in his chest. Ryan started breathing hard.

The devices on his head made his forehead itch.

He turned his head and saw the man. The man's face looked scrunched up in pain. There was an aura around the man that seemed to get sucked up into the sphere in the man's hands. There was the faint apparition of an Ox slowly dimming above the man's head. The sphere seemed to morph like clay in the man's hands, slowly taking the form of an Ox. Ryan's eyes widened when he remembered when Steven had told him about the Ox. The Ox was a man named Malik. For a split second, the sphere morphed into another animal. A Monkey. _What? Two animals? What does that mean_?

Finally, the dim aura around Malik's body vanished. Sucked up into the sphere. Which was now in the vague shape of an Ox. Malik fell to one knee, panting, out of breath. Suddenly, he looked up into Ryan's scared eyes, the hint of pity still on his face. Slowly, he stood up, his legs wobbling slightly as he stood. Malik put his arms behind his back and stared down at Ryan, his face emotionless.

Malik handed the sphere back to Maxwell, who in turn took it around to the side of the table. Ryan noticed the reflection of the light on his nose got brighter as Maxwell walked closer, like a sensor. The sound of Maxwell's footsteps made Ryan's stomach flip over. They seemed dauntingly slow, as if Maxwell was teasing him. Ryan finally saw Maxwell's face, grinning widely at him. Ryan looked down at the sphere which started to glow with the same aura Malik had, with a hint of something else. The Sphere glowed brighter and brighter and started to hum and pulse. The devices on Ryan's forehead began to hum, too.

An intense pain hit Ryan in the head. Not a headache. It felt like something foreign was being forced into Ryan's mind. Ryan bit down on his tongue in pain. He squirmed on the table, hitting his fist against the metal, kicking his feet. It felt like an electrical current running through him. Cutting right through the middle. Ryan's head screamed in pain. He cried out as more foreign energy flooded into his mind, clouding his thoughts. The devices on Ryan's head hummed and gave off a bright red glow. They seemed to dig into his head, the sides that touched Ryan's forehead burned, like fire. The hair on the back of his neck stood up and he felt like he was being pricked by a thousand needles all at once.

Ryan's eyelids grew heavy and he looked over at Maxwell, the sphere in his hands slowly taking it's original shape again, losing its glow, all the excess energy ebbing into Ryan's head. Maxwell looked down on him. Ryan felt himself starting to fall asleep, his arms limp from pain. He had no strength left in him. So slowly Ryan closed his eyes, his head clattering limply against the table. The last thing Ryan saw was the large grin on Maxwell's face and then Ryan blacked out.

|\|/|

 _Where are they going?_ , Harani thought. She was on her one knee, peering over a bush into the clearing, watching as Robyn blindly walked out of the clearing, her face emotionless. Harani had seen Steven on the other side of the clearing, with a woman whose eyes were glowing bright green. Harani vaguely remembered Steven telling her something about a lady with glowing green eyes.

"What do you want with them?" Harani whispered. She stepped out of the bush, walking slowly to the center of the clearing, looking around. Steven, Robyn, and the woman were gone. The forest was silent again, only faint footsteps which were getting closer away could be heard. A shadow crossed the clearing and Harani looked up. A bird flew high above Harani's head.

She frowned and walked over to the bush Steven and that woman had been behind. Even in the shadows of the trees, Harani could see a glint of something in the bushes. She picked it up. It was a smartphone. _Steven's phone_ , Harani thought, pocketing the phone in her jacket.

Harani stared at the phone that was sitting on the marble counter in Steven's kitchen. She was only now just realizing the gravity of the situation. "They're _gone_ ," she said. Harani had left the door unlocked when she'd followed Steven into the clearing. She really felt like punching something right now.

She walked over to the fridge and opened it, looking the Caprisuns on the top shelf of the fridge. Harani laughed, just as she heard something buzz. She looked at the phone. It was buzzing around on the counter. Her eyes widened as she closed the fridge and grabbed the phone. Harani looked at the caller id. It didn't have a name, just a number.

 _812-555-5424_

Harani answered the call. "Steven?" The voice on the other side of the call sounded grainy and tinny, "No. Who is this?" It sounded vaguely like a girl's voice. Harani raised an eyebrow, "Harani. Who is this?"


	15. Chapter 15

Robyn heard a sharp tapping like metal against metal ringing dully in her ears, bringing her back to her senses. The floor below her felt cold and metallic, sending a cold shiver up her spine. She hadn't opened her eyes yet, but the insides of her eyelids were tinted a strange red.

Robyn slowly opened her eyes.

She was on her side, facing a thin red glowing bar. Robyn's eyes grew wide as she stared at the bar, a mere inch away from her nose. She sat up and backed away from the bars quickly. Her breathing became heavy and quick as she looked around, her eyes looking wildly around the room.

She was in a room. Surrounded by glowing bars on three sides. It had one metal wall and enough light that Robyn could barely see five feet in front of her, making the towering bars look more intimidating in the darkness. She was in a cell. A cold draft seemed to pass through Robyn and she shivered, rubbing her arms to keep her warm. She noticed in the corner of the room were screens and the faint blue outline of two people in front of the screen. The bars cast an eerie crimson glow on the cell. It didn't take Robyn long to find out there was someone in the room with her—in another cell. They were lying down on the floor, unconcious. The bars gave the silhouette a red outline. If Robyn squinted she could make out black hair, seemingly blending into the darkness. It was too dark for Robyn to know who it was, but she had a hunch.

Steven.

Robyn balled up her fists. She suddenly felt the intense urge to punch someone. Anything. The cell suddenly seemed to get darker, the darkness closing in around her. Making her light-headed and claustrophobic. She needed to get out. _Now_.

Without thinking, Robyn stood up and marched up to the bars, grabbing them in her hands. She shook the bars violently, gathering up all the strength she could muster as she yelled,"Hey!" The people in the corner of the room ignored her, the tapping stopped. Robyn yelled louder, shaking the bars more furiously now, "Hey! Let me out of here! Helloo! Are you deaf or something? Let me out!" This time, the guards looked at her, not giving her a second glance as they turned back toward the screen. In the red light of the bars, Robyn was barely able to make out who they were. It was two men, dressed in what looked like armor, with tasers at their sides. _Huh, we're not important enough to the guards for them to use guns_ , she thought. One of them had a small bronze key in their hand amd was using it to tap at the small desk where the screens sat.With a look of dismay and a fit of anger, Robyn shook the bars again and suddenly noticed the smell of burning flesh in her nose. She looked down at her hands. They still gripped the bars tightly, but she heard the buzz of searing flesh between her palms. In her anger, she hadn't noticed that the bars were burning her hands, burning the flesh.

Robyn cried out in pain, backing away from the bars until her back hit the one solid wall of the cell. She stared at her hands, which were bright red and throbbing in pain. The inside of her hands stung when Robyn touched it and covered with blisters. The smell of burning flesh still lingered in her nose and after what seemed like minutes, Robyn stopped staring at her hands and slid down to the floor, pressing her back to the wall. She felt one tear rolling down her cheek and Robyn choked back a sob as she buried her head in her arms, hugging her knees. The darkness seemed to choke her, draining any remaining strength she had left. The pit of her stomach felt hollow and twisted from the pain in her hands and the fear in her head. Robyn sobbed for a moment before noticing a small sound from the corner of the room—from the other cell. Her eyes widened and Robyn crawled over to the wall connected to the other cell, being careful not to touch the bars. Robyn glanced at the guards, making sure they weren't looking and whispered,"Steven. Steven! Is that you?" The figure moved and finally in one last movement sat up.

Steven rubbed his head and groaned, "Ugh." He looked around in blackness, his eyes widening when he saw the glowing red bars which were casting a red glow on Steven's face. Steven raised an eyebrow,"What's—" Steven stopped talking when his eyes finally settled on Robyn and she thought his eyes would pop out of his head. It looked like she'd been crying. "Is that you?", she whispered. Slowly, Steven crawled over to Robyn who was in the other cell beside his. "Robyn? What are you doing here?", Steven whispered.

Robyn looked at the guards and pointed one finger at them.

"I think you better ask them."

Ryan's neck was sore, a groan escaped his throat as he looked up. He felt extremely tired, but at the same time, energized. He felt extremely off. He squinted in the bright lights, wondering where he was...

Then, he remembered. _That Maxwell guy...I was trapped.._ , he thought. He abruptly tried to stand up, but had to sit back down due to the fact that someone had tied his hands behind his back with metal handcuffs. He tried to move his feet, but felt the handcuffs pressing into his ankles and stopped trying. Ryan looked around, trying to find a possible way to escape. The room was empty, he was kind of surprised that they'd left him alone. The room had dull gray walls and bright lights in the ceiling. He also noticed there was no door. But Ryan reasoned the door was behind him when he heard faint voices.

Ryan's stomach suddenly flipped over when he realized something. _Where AM I?_ , He thought. He was alone, he didn't even know in what country he was in. Ryan could have been in Antarctica for all he knew. _Or Saturn_. Hundreds of miles away from anyone who could help him. Ryan's breathing suddenly grew shallow and quick. His mom...Did she notice he was gone? What day was it? How long had he been out? A day? A week? He hung his head in despair, letting his hands go limp and his eyes to close. What was he supposed to do? _Maybe I should just give_ —.

Ryan lifted his head up in interest. He didn't know why, but he could _feel_ something. It was faint, but it was close. Ryan didn't know why he thought of what he did, but it was almost like he could _sense_ the Tiger.

Steven.

And someone else. Ryan couldn't tell who it was. He didn't even wonder why he could even sense them in the first place. If Steven was here, to rescue him, then Ryan wasn't missing that opportunity. Not even thinking of what he did next, Ryan pulled his hands apart, stretching the rope out so much and so fast that it snapped like rubber. He pulled his hands from behind his back and stretched them out, shaking the tiredness from them. Then, he bent down and pulled the rope from his ankles, breaking it in the process. Then, he stood up and walked over to the door. It had an old-fashioned door knob and locked from the outside. There was no window in the door so he couldn't look out. Ryan knocked on the door, and heard the sound reverberate inside. It felt like hollow metal.

Ryan suddenly got a crazy idea, an awful idea. And for some reason, he smiled.

He grabbed the door knob and wondered if it would give his hands that weird smell they got from touching old metal. Out of pure spite, he suddenly laughed. Then, still holding the doorknob in his hand, he walked backward extending his arms as far as they could. Taking a deep breath, he gripped the doorknob until his knuckles were white and ran toward the door, angling his shoulder toward the metal. He shouted, expecting to bounce back from the metal.

"Ow!" Ryan's arm suddenly burned with pain. _Okay. There's gonna be a bruise on that tomorrow_. Ryan sighed and looked up, eyeing the vent directly above him. He jumped for it, immediately forgetting about his arm and miraculously managed to jar the cover loose and pull himself in. Ryan never remembered having such a good agility, yeah he was on the baseball team, but this was something else. An image of the morphing silver sphere flashed in his mind. _Did that somehow-_ , Ryan thought as he fell through the vent and hit the floor with a loud thud.

Ryan opened his eyes, he looked up at the hole in the vent. It didn't exactly register in his mind, his eyes flew over the large gaping hole like it wasn't even there. And surprisingly, Ryan felt no pain when he'd hit the floor. He looked straight ahead. There was a long hallway extending to meet a door at the end of it. In the walls, there were doors leading to other rooms.

And about 5 guards inside the hallway. Just staring at him. Or more likely staring at the large hole he'd made in the door. But Ryan didn't seem to notice. No one moved for a few moments. Ryan's mind still had not processed the fact that he'd broke through the door. Suddenly, the person that Ryan least wanted to see walked out of one of the many doors. Maxwell. He held something in his hand and then glanced at the door Ryan had just punched through. His eyes grew wide as he noticed the hole and then at Ryan. Ryan could swear he saw a vein pop out of the man's head.

Then, Maxwell noticed no one moving and yelled, " Grab him!"

The alarms started. Ryan hadn't noticed it, but there had been one guard behind him the whole time and he grabbed his shoulder. Ryan turned back around and punched the guard in the nose. The guard screamed and grabbed his nose, but Ryan had already moved away before the guard had even collapsed. He ran down the hallway, before he was met with 2 more guards. Suddenly, Ryan's eyes grew wide and he looked back at the guard, who was now lying on the ground in pain. _DO I really have that good a punch?_ , he thought. Just as a guard punched him in the gut, and Ryan fell to his knees, the wind knocked out of him. The guards reached out to grab him, but Ryan crawled beneath their legs, got up and kept running. The other two guards had somehow vanished and the only person left in the hall was Maxwell.

Maxwell looked at the unconscious guards and the vein in his head seemed to pop out even more. He ran, reaching out for Ryan just as Ryan got to the end of the hallway and pulled on the door handle desperately. He looked back, seeing Maxwell getting closer and closer. Ryan pulled on the door again and clenched his other hand into a fist. Just when Maxwell got close enough, Ryan punched him in the nose. But Maxwell didn't fall to the ground like the other guard, he simply reached up to touch his nose and came back with his fingertips stained with bright red blood. Ryan thought he almost saw a smirk on the man's face.

Ryan's eyes widened in fear, realizing that Maxwell was right there. In one last attempt, Ryan pulled on the doorknob and opened it. The room was dark. But the bright lights from the hallway illuminated the large room.

"What was that?", he heard someone whisper in the shadows. He noticed bars. Glowing red bars lining small cells in the room. Two other guards near the end of the room turned around, their faces hidden in the darkness. But they quickly ran away. "I don't know." Another person said. Ryan heard a loud thud behind him and saw that Maxwell had fallen from the punch. But he was already starting to get up. Ryan could sense that Steven was closer now. So he yelled, "Steven!"

He heard the voice grow louder. "What? Steven, who's that?", The voice from before now sounded like a girl, it also sounded very familiar. Ryan looked back and saw Maxwell leaning against the wall for support so he ran into the room walking along the cells. Then he stopped, realizing where he'd heard the voice before.

"Robyn?", he whispered.

"Yeah. Who's there?", she answered back. Ryan heard footsteps and suddenly he saw Robyn in the glow of the bars. He looked in the cell beside hers and saw Steven in the cell. Even in the darkness, Ryan saw the whites of Steven's eyes go wide. "Ryan?" Steven and Ryan looked at each other and said in unison, "What are you doing here?"

Ryan looked back into the hallway, but Maxwell wasn't there anymore. "Doesn't matter. Right now, I'm breaking you guys out." Ryan said, grabbing the bars, trying to see if he could break them or something. Robyn said, "I already tried that."

Ryan suddenly felt the skin on the palms of his hands burn and cried out, sinking to the floor. Steven looked at him confused, "Ryan, you okay?" Ryan couldn't feel his hands for a few seconds and held them in front of his face. He got back up and was careful not to touch the bars. "Yeah, I think so. What was that?"

"Bars to keep whoever inside the cell in. It only really works on Zodiacs, though. So it shouldn't be affecting you." Steven said. Ryan's eyes grew wide. Ryan's memories returned to him, and logic slipped into his head. _That sphere thing...The table...the pain..._

Ryan suddenly looked back and his mind finally registered what he had done. The door into the hallway was open and Ryan saw the giant hole he'd made in the ceiling. The guard he'd punched in the nose not moving. The door into the hallway was missing its door handle and he saw it on the floor, discarded and broken. Ryan hadn't realized it, but he'd been gripping the doorknob so hard that he'd left a deep handprint in the knob, its shape deformed. "Ryan, what is it?", Robyn looked worried. Ryan suddenly realized how exhausted he was and his legs betrayed him. He fell to his knees. Steven and Robyn looked up into the hallway and saw the damage Ryan had caused. Robyn gasped and muttered under her breath, "Oh my god."

Ryan looked down at his hands, they wouldn't stop shaking. He realized that he had felt no pain when he'd fallen 10 feet onto solid concrete, or when he had gotten kicked in the gut. Maxwell appeared from the shadows again. "What...what did you do to me?", Ryan said, looking at his hands. There was blood on them, his knuckles were bloody. Steven's face turned hard as he saw Maxwell give Ryan a smug smile, a drop of blood on his nose. "I improved you."

"What...what?", Ryan said. He looked at Steven, who gave him a look of dismay. He looked at Robyn, who only stared back in shock. It became too much for him, Ryan's breathing grew heavy and shallow and he felt his eyes close as his head hit the concrete. He heard Steven yell, "Ryan! Ryan!"

The last thing Ryan saw before he passed out was the sight of Maxwell's smile growing larger and hands grabbing for him in the darkness.


	16. Chapter 16

_Harani answered the call. "Steven?" The voice on the other side of the call sounded grainy and tinny, "No. Who is this?" It sounded vaguely like a girl's voice. Harani raised an eyebrow, "Harani. Who is this?"_

The girl didn't answer at first so Harani asked again, "I said, who is this?" She was starting to get very annoyed.

There wasn't an immediate answer, but then, "Kim."

"My name's Kim. I'm a close friend of Stevens"

Harani answered awkwardly, not knowing what to say next. "Okayyy?" There was a moment of silence between before Kim quickly replied, "If you're not Steven, then where is he?" Harani had no clue on that. She looked around Steven's kitchen as if searching for an answer even though she knew she wasn't going to get one. For once, Harani didn't know.

"I don't...know". Harani already hated this feeling. Kim suddenly sounded worried at the tone of Harani's voice, "Are you okay?" Harani didn't know, her best friend and a girl had just been essentially kidnapped by what she could only assume was Vanguard. They were the only ones that made sense. But why? Why now? _Oh my god_. She remembered Ryan, remembered that he'd gone out to buy snacks for us. _Where was he?_ He should have been here by now. Harani looked down at her watch. _He should have been here hours ago_. She told Kim everything starting from the moment he'd arrived back in Pennsylvania to now. "Listen, where are you?" Harani immediately assumed an accusing look on her face, "Why do you want to know?" And then suddenly, as if by magic, a girl appeared in front of her. She was a lot shorter than Harani and blonde, wearing a green shirt and dark blue jeans. She smiled warmly at Harani, "Because I know some people who can help us." Kim reached for the phone and ended the previous call, seemingly dialing another number. Harani suddenly recognized the name Kim and said, "You're the Rabbit, right?"

Kim nodded her head before holding the phone up to her ear, tapping her foot in patience. Harani said, "My name's Harani, by the way."

The person on the other end picked up and Kim set it down on the table, setting it to speaker.

It was a man, he had a slight accent but Harani couldn't tell from where. The place where the man was must have had really bad reception because the audio sounded terrible. "Hello? Who is this?"

"Hi, Carlos."

"Kim?"

"Yeah, we've got a bit of a problem."

"What?" Another person replied, this time a woman. But to Harani, the voice sounded vaguely familiar.

"Steven's missing."

"Vanguard?" Both the man and the woman replied in unison.

When Kim didn't immediately answer, both the man and the woman cursed.

"Yeah", Kim replied sadly, "I'm with Steven's friend, who can explain everything a lot better than I could." Harani repeated everything she'd said to Kim, shortening some parts to make the story shorter. After she finished, both Carlos and the woman began firing questions at her, and she managed to answer every one, but eventually she stopped them. Because something had been nagging at her since the phone call had began.

"Wait, wait, wait. Tour guide?" Kim gave her an odd look.

The woman answered intriguingly, "Yeah?"

Harani remembered what Steven had told her about Hong Kong, "Jasmine! Our tour guide from Hong Kong!"

"You were there?" Jasmine replied. "Yeah! I was the one wearing the ugly orange sweater!"

"Oh, yeahhhh. How could I forget that?" Harani winced at the memory. At the time, she thought it looked nice, but after several people telling her it was hideous and then realizing it actually was. She'd buried it so deep in her closet that she was sure it would never see the light of day again. Although, if she went looking for it, she could probably find it.

"Anyways", Kim interjected, "What are we gonna do?" There was no response for a brief minute before Carlos replied, "Well, Maxwell has kidnapped two Zodiacs, the Horse and the Ti-"

"Don't forget my friend, Ryan. We were all supposed to hang out and I haven't heard from him in a couple of hours and him disappearing at the same time as Steven and Robyn seems like too much of a-", Jasmine completed my sentence, "coincidence." It sounded like Carlos was typing something at a keyboard and then stopped, "But why would Maxwell need Ryan? It makes no sense. Ryan's just a person. He's not a zodiac..." Carlos's voice suddenly trailed off, whispering to Jasmine, "what?" Harani and Kim looked at each other. Carlos and Jasmine began speaking in hushed tones.

 _There was something...before all this...something he mentioned to me...Jasmine...what are you talking about?...when we'd just learned that the zodiac powers existed...he'd asked me something...I can't..._

They suddenly stopped and Carlos spoke up, "Nevermind, we'll talk about it once you get here." Kim ended the call and gave the phone back to Harani. Harani furrowed her brows in confusion, "Where?"

Kim placed a hand on Harani's shoulder and smiled brightly at her. "You'll see." And before, Harani even had a chance to get a word in, they disappeared.


End file.
